Despite losing middle hitter David Yoon ’14 to injury, Andover Boys Volleyball won two of its three games this past week.
On Saturday, Andover dropped two of the first three sets, 25-20 and 25-21, to get off to a rocky start against Choate. Andover had previously swept Choate 3-0 on April 19.
With Andover down 2-1, Co-Captain Alex Tamkin ’14 went on a spiking spree, forcing Choate to spend most of its time diving to dig balls. Tamkin’s prowess closed the set at 25-19 in Andover’s favor.
Andover then went on to take the fifth set and the victory 16-14.
“It came down to us playing the game at our tempo; we were playing Choate Volleyball at Choate. It was a nail-biter, but I think it was our game all along, and it was just a matter of whether or not we let our mistakes defeat us,” wrote Achindra Krishna ’15 in an email to _The Phillipian_.
Andover could not continue its momentum against Northfield Mount Hermon (NMH). The team only scored 15 points in its first set loss.
“I think missing our middle blocker [Yoon], a crucial element of our team, made the game against NMH much harder,” wrote Krishna. “Yoon is no doubt a positive influence on the team’s energy. He’s always out there cheering at the top of his lungs, and it inevitably helps us all. Communication in general wasn’t as good as it should have been, and a lot of our strong outside hits (which we use as our source of energy) were stuffed by blocks.”
Andover went on to lose the second set 25-10.
Andover recovered against Central Catholic with a 3-2 victory. Andover won its first, third and fifth sets.
After losing the second set 25-23, Andover maintained a lead throughout the third set.
Blocks from Krishna and Brendan Deorocki ’15 kept hard Central Catholic spikes from crossing the net.
With an 8-2 lead in the third set, Andover brought its tally to 16 with the help of blocks and spikes from Tamkin.
Despite a 12-8 lead in the fourth set, a few inaccurate spikes led to Andover’s 25-21 set loss.
In the deciding set, Andover broke out to an early 9-3 lead and finished strong at 15-8.
With two more wins under its belt, Andover will face Wilbraham and Phillips Exeter Academy away on Saturday.
